Yes, you read the topic right!
Now that I have your attention, ask yourself this:
Why shouldn't I be empathetic as a product manager?
Let's start with the basics, what is empathy?
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings, experiences, and emotions of others. It's about putting yourself in someone else's shoes and truly seeing things from their perspective.
You've probably heard this over and over again, in meetings, webinars, blog posts, and just about every product management circle: "As a product manager, you need to be empathetic."
But who exactly should you be empathetic toward? And why?
Disclaimer: This list is in no particular order.
It's almost cliché at this point, but let's unpack it, what does being empathetic toward your users really mean?
It means deeply understanding their pain points, needs, and behaviours. It means stepping into their shoes to craft solutions and experiences that genuinely improve their lives. This empathy should guide your roadmap and influence how you prioritise tickets, tasks, and deliverables.
Have you ever paused during backlog grooming to ask: "Why are we even doing this?" I do, every single time.
Whether it's a for-profit company or a non-profit organisation, one thing is constant: the lights must stay on.
Being empathetic toward the business means aligning your product decisions with its goals and vision. This affects how you engage customers, manage your team, draft your roadmap, escalate issues, prioritise features, and keep timelines.
Product managers who ignore the business context aren't building for impact, they're just shipping features.
Empathy is not just external, it's internal too.
When I share templates with other PMs, I make it clear: "This works for me, but something else might work better for you."
Let me illustrate this.
During a mentorship session I hosted, a new PM who just got a job at a new company asked me what documents she needed to share with her team beyond the PRD she had just written. I could have easily listed out all the documents and their sections. But I gave her a better answer:
Be empathetic.
Put yourself in the shoes of each person you're working with and ask, what would they need to do their job effectively?
For example:
- The business team wants a roadmap, but also wants to understand why features are prioritised and how you're differentiating from competitors.
- The designer reading your PRD will likely need to revisit the document repeatedly. Including user flows helps them visualise the experience. Adding simple sketches, while making it clear you're not encroaching on their role, can make all the difference.
Recently, I had to onboard a Machine Learning Engineer. It was my first time collaborating with one, and I had to prepare a document to give stakeholders insight into our work.
I tried using a ChatGPT-generated template. It was a good start, but it didn't align with how I knew ML engineers typically think. So, I dropped the template and asked myself:
- What challenge is the market facing?
- What are we building?
- Who are we building for?
- Why are we doing this?
- What do we need you to do?
- What data structures are available?
- What data structures should you expect?
- What does success look like for us?
- When are we going live?
Each question became a section in the document, and I included visual aids to support the content. The result? I got a "Thank you! This was very explanatory" email.
Empathy created that template.
In my time as a product manager, I've received many similar messages from designers, developers, and managers saying things like, "You made my life easier" or "You really went all out."
Ah yes, the developers, designers, QA testers, your crew. Empathy here does not mean pampering people. It means setting them up for success.
How?
- Write clear tickets. Include relevant links, documentation, and context (like API endpoints).
- Be the first filter for support tickets. Sales will be sales. Business will be business. But as PM, you must ensure only technical issues truly requiring dev input get through. Some "tickets" are just a matter of better internal training.
- Celebrate wins. Your team just crushed a sprint? Order pizza. I currently owe my ML engineer a lunch if he hits a milestone we agreed on.
Empathy is not just a buzzword, it's the backbone of effective product management.
It helps you build better products, lead stronger teams, and collaborate more meaningfully. Whether you're prioritising tickets, drafting a roadmap, onboarding a new teammate, or helping a junior PM find their footing...
Just ask yourself: "What would they need to thrive?"
That's empathy. That's product management done right.